Imagination Shapes Reality

A note I just sent to my city councilor

The new garbage collection today… the recycling truck seems to be placing everyone’s bin on the road. Taking it from their driveway, and returning it to the street. Additionally, the green bins were all left on their side, not standing upright.

There is confusion over the hours of the swimming pool at Mitchell Field. The city’s website said that the afternoon swim finishes at 4:35 (Update: I did this time from memory… the site at the moment says 4:25). The sign on the door of the lifeguards office says 4:30. The flyer available at the community centre’s desk says 4:25. The last time we were there we were asked by the lifeguard to leave at 4:20. I wonder what their timesheets say? Oh, and there was graffiti in the mens changeroom there as well.

Recently a contractor for the city drove their truck through Dempsey Park. The morning after that big rain. They sunk in the mud. They tore up a large portion of the hill next to the kitchen garden, not to mention the compaction of the ground from the street through to the tree they were chopping. The local gardener says there is nothing that can be done about it since it was a contractor which has no oversight and he doesn’t have anything in his budget to repair the damage.

Beecroft road is finally finished!?
The deck built as part of Canterbury Place Park overtop of the Creek exposure is shoddy (west side south of Churchill, north of Ellerslie). Many of the pieces don’t line up, there are exposed edges that were never cut fully (i.e. waiting for something to snag on), and if you look underneath, one of the support beams does not connect — the cement pillar is there, and the wooden beam is there, but there is a 4 cm gap between the two. Not to mention some trash from the construction (wood offcuts) that was thrown into the creek bed below.

Where’s the pride?

Chris ‘curmudgeon’ Nolan

Update: Here is the reply I received from John Filion on September 4.

Dear ‘Curmudgeon’ Chris,

Thanks for your comments, and sorry for the delay in responding to your e-mail. I share your sentiments and was, in fact, having a conversation on this point with a friend yesterday. Not that this makes the situation any better, but in my recent experience the same lack of pride in workmanship extends also to the private sector.

Please let my office know if the garbage situation has improved. The company that has the contract has been read the riot act by City staff and it is a changeover that we are watching closely.